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August Ascends / August Wanes
by Richard Paez
August Ascends
“Where do the rivers go?”
We ask,
yet August ascends:
no questions, no –
no answers will stand
in Her way.
~
At the edge of the swamp we stood,
waterlogged, woven-switch-people,
insomniac lovers,
afraid of insects
of the reptiles we'd become.
We dreamt of waking,
prayed for Autumn
and the underwater things
sunshine reveals:
Those shapeless things
we followed,
that followed us –
underwater shadows,
surface ripples,
fungus and chitin.
~
We dreamt, overcast.
Levees and breakwaters:
how long could they hold?
Our surface tensions,
strained membranes
encasing August's face;
yet still we played
survival of the quickest
in this frozen, silent place.
~
August ascends,
yet Her children
we'll always be:
Landlocked and submerged.
August Wanes
August wanes (but
some things never change):
The cicadas' call,
more cascade than chorus,
crests over gutters swollen
with July's downpour:
Our springtime submerged
with this detritus turned deluge –
these remainders made rivers,
brimming over turgid trenches –
Summer's distended bellies
starving for Autumn.
~
August wanes (but
the mosquitoes still swarm.
Impossible to stave
and never satiated:
these little things
subject only to the wind).
~
We stood there
at the threshold of the storm
watched August ascend.
We raised our arms
prayed to the rain
sunk in the swamp:
Here, in her belly,
is where life happens –
Here, in her belly
is where life tears free:
At the edge of the swamp,
here in her belly
we woven-switch-people stand
where no answers will
and the shapeless, underwater things
– more cascade than chorus,
our detritus turned deluge –
ascend,
And we:
We are little things
subject only to the wind.
09/02/2009 Author's Note: For the all the women who have given birth to me in August.
"...of the reptiles we'd become."
"We had" or "we would" -- it's both, it's each, and it's neither, it's up to you and it's up to me: visit the swamp, feel her arms surround you and her lips consume you, and then -- if you find your way out again -- then you can tell me your answer so that I can burn it like incense and learn how to dream (again).
Inspired, in part, by Ava Blue's August is not so cold cycle.
Posted on 09/02/2009
Copyright © 2025 Richard Paez
| Member Comments on this Poem |
| Posted by Ava Blu on 09/03/09 at 01:04 AM I'm quite honored to see my name in your Author's Note. The alliteration throughout was rather complimentary. Your ending was by far a favorite of mine; those last lines represent exactly what I could only hope was achieved in my August series, since I lacked the perfect words.
Oh yeah, it is lovely to see a new poem from you. |
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